


the comforter

by Zsazsa4



Category: The Terror (TV 2018)
Genre: Canon Compliant, M/M, Missing Scene, aching longing general sadness etc, armitage is about as confused by the concept of limited salvation as i am
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:34:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26217982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zsazsa4/pseuds/Zsazsa4
Summary: for terror exe prompt: a confession can be a bible passage, solomon tozer and collective bible reading
Relationships: Thomas Armitage/Sgt Solomon Tozer
Comments: 3
Kudos: 14
Collections: @terror_exe Flash Fest





	the comforter

The Bible had never meant very much to Armitage, but he had to admit it gave him a funny turn when they began using a copy as a fire-starter. He didn’t know who had thrown it in the boat; certainly not him, and any particular devotion to religious services in his companions was well-concealed. Still, it was coming in handy now. It was certainly a big dull book, but even it couldn’t go on forever so they tried to keep it down to a small handful of pages at a time. Even so they were well on the way through Judges. Tozer had walked off the first time he and Hoar had knelt, trying to coax a smashed up box into catching from their palmful of burning pages. Had seemed more disturbed than at any of the other things they’d done which weighed much heavier on Armitage’s mind. 

After that he came round to it, as you have to come round to everything. It wasn’t like there weren’t more pressing things to worry about, both where Tozer was and wasn’t concerned. Still, Armitage didn’t exactly like to see him brooding with the thing in hand. It was different to the Tozer he had so much come to admire and depend on, but Tozer was his man still and if he wanted to read the Bible that was his business. Nonetheless it played on his mind as he looked in on Tozer in his tent, mutilated book open.

‘All right, Tommy,’ Tozer said. ‘You’re welcome to come in properly.’ Armitage hadn’t realised he’d seen him, was embarrassed to be caught spying. But then there wasn’t much else to do; sit silent, or creep about.

‘Never took you to be religious as all that,’ he tried out.

‘I haven’t been. But it has a certain relation to the circumstances where we now find ourselves,’ Tozer said.

He knelt and peered over Tozer’s shoulder. The book of Job. He had a dim memory of it. It looked depressing as anything, the passage that caught his eye. ‘Well,’ said Armitage, ‘he came through, didn’t he? Job?’

‘Yeah. He got his cows back and his boils went away and he had some more children, and he called one of them Box of Eye Paint.’

‘He what?’

‘Keren-happuch. Box of Eye Paint. So he was definitely a bit different afterwards.’

‘Oh. Well, I suppose he was then. Still.’

‘Here,’ Tozer said, flicking forward. ‘Read this. Out loud.’

Obediently, Armitage squinted at the page. ‘Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down? Canst thou put an hook into his nose? or bore his jaw through with a thorn? Will he make many supplications unto thee? will he speak soft words unto thee? Will he make a covenant with thee? wilt thou take him for a servant for ever? Wilt thou play with him as with a bird? or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens? Shall the companions make a banquet of him?’ He stopped. He didn’t know why Tozer wanted him to read it, but he felt cold inside, obscurely unsettled. ‘It’s not good for you to be reading this stuff. Isn’t there anything more - I don’t know. Bits that make more sense.’

Tozer laughed properly at that, it made Armitage feel better. ‘You really don’t know your bible if you think it makes sense.’

‘Maybe if there’s a bit that makes you feel better -’

‘What would make me feel better, Tommy? Sheep and goats? Wise and foolish virgins? The great and terrible day of the Lord?’

‘I don’t know it like you know it,’ Armitage said. He smarted at the unfairness of all that turned on him, who only wanted to be a comfort. To comfort Tozer would have eased him greatly. ‘But I know sometimes people draw on it. In times of need and that.’

‘Yeah,’ Tozer said, softer, ‘I suppose they do. But it’s most help if you know yourself to be saved and I don’t suppose none of us here can say that.’

They were now well and truly on ground where Armitage had no footing, but he hated to hear Tozer like that. He got himself seated properly, chest flush with Tozer’s back. He took the book out of Tozer’s hands, placed it on the ragged, filthy canvas flooring the tent, then leant his head onto Tozer’s shoulder, smelling the sweat and dirt on his skin and the grease of his hair. Brought his arms round and held him closer, smaller than he had been but still broad and solid, warmer than anyone had a right to be. 

Tozer leaned into him and, heart in his mouth, he brought a hand up under Tozer’s shirt, to skin that hadn’t seen the sun in years, still smooth and whole. Ribs prominent but, he thought with relief that floored him, not protruding, flesh on them yet. As long as he could hold him like that, head tipped back against him, quiet him just a little.

‘Not a bad comforter,’ Tozer said, eyes closed.

‘It’ll be all right, Sol. You said it yourself. God gave Job it all back and more. There might not be sense in the suffering but it was all right in the end.’

‘He was a blameless man, Job. That’s the whole point. A blameless and righteous man,’ Tozer said. ‘You know what Job’s wife said to him, when he was all sat in a ditch with shards of pots scraping boils off of himself? Curse God and die. I always thought that sounded about right. And I felt bad for her as well, I didn’t see why she should be mixed up with Job and God and the devil and it’s her kids died too, but then I suppose that’s what happens in life.’ 

Armitage had nothing to say to that, nothing to keep Tozer curled into him.

Then Tozer leant away from him and let the Bible fall open at the first page left. ‘We’re smiting the Benjaminites tomorrow, then.’

Sooner we burn the fucking thing the better, thought Armitage.

**Author's Note:**

> Tozer has, apparently, been reading Muriel Spark as well as the KJV for his translation of Keren-happuch. (Brief other references to Matthew and Joel).
> 
> [Come chat to me on tumblr, @roaringgirl](https://roaringgirl.tumblr.com)


End file.
